U.S. senators propose AI bills for transparency and innovation

Lawmakers in the United States have proposed two new bipartisan bills targeting issues of transparency and innovation in artificial intelligence (AI). 

On June 8, Democratic senator Gary Peters and Republican senators Mike Braun and James Lankford introduced the first bill which would require the government to be transparent with its AI usage.

Under such a measure, U.S. government agencies would need to inform the public when it uses AI to interact with them, along with a system for citizens to appeal any decisions made by AI.

Braun commented in a statement saying that:

“The federal government needs to be proactive and transparent with AI utilization and ensure that decisions aren’t being made without humans in the driver’s seat.”

The second bill was brought to the table by Democratic senators Michael Bennet and Mark Warner, along with Republican senator Todd Young to establish an official Office of Global Competition Analysis. 

This new division is aimed at aiding the U.S. in staying on top of AI development. Senator Bennet remarked that:

“We cannot afford to lose our competitive edge in strategic technologies like semiconductors, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence to competitors like China.

The introduction of these bills follows an announcement from senate majority leader Chuck Schumer that called for three upcoming AI briefings to educate lawmakers on the technology.

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Regulations targeting AI are beginning to pop up in discussions among lawmakers across the globe. 

Earlier this week officials in the United Kingdom stressed that AI models need regulation similar to those imposed on medicine and nuclear power. The same day another U.K. official warned that if these models are not under control ​​within the next two years or else face a threat to humanity.

Meanwhile, in Europe, lawmakers are in the process of finalizing their EU AI Act, which is a comprehensive set of regulations for the development and deployment of generative AI.

European regulators have taken a similarly urgent approach to AI regulation and most recently said they considering all AI-generated content to be labeled as such.

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